ACLJ Wins Major Mandate Case at the Supreme Court

In a major victory for the ACLJ and the American worker, the Supreme Court issued an emergency stay that blocked President Biden’s vaccine mandate and held that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) does not have the statutory authority to implement this mandate. Now, nearly two-thirds of the American workforce and their employers do not have to comply with this onerous mandate.

ACLJ Senior Counsel Andy Ekonomou summed up the opinion:

The heart of the opinion was that Congress did not give the Labor Department through the OSHA . . . the statutory or regulatory authority, I should say, to interfere in the mandating of vaccines or testing or any of those things they attempted to do because it wasn’t in the congressional mandate. . . . That power was not given to OSHA. So, OSHA did not have authority to regulate or interfere in that particular thing. It was a resounding victory for the Constitution of the United States because it emphasized the fact that only delegated powers by the states to the federal government apply. And even then, the federal government has limited authority under what it can do and give to its agencies. 

It was an honor to achieve this victory for The Heritage Foundation in their first lawsuit as a petitioner in federal court. The president of The Heritage Foundation, Kevin Roberts, joined Sekulow to give his reaction to the victory:

My reaction first and foremost was gratitude to . . . everyone at the ACLJ for representing us. Secondly . . . you were spot on. This is exactly what you predicted, that the merits of a number of cases that focus on separation of powers, on the proper role of government, rather than getting into the weeds of the science, because we know it’s too premature in the disease to figure that out was the right way to go. We are ecstatic at The Heritage Foundation not just because we and any employer of over 100 employees have won these cases, we are ecstatic because it is a line in the sand against this regime that they better not cross again.

ACLJ Senior Military Analyst Wes Smith explained how the ACLJ was able to achieve this victory:

There is no other organization that is positioned quite like we are to defend the Constitution and to represent the rights and freedoms of ordinary Americans, businesses and groups, states and cities through our representatives of Congress we have direct contact with, advocacy in the media, through our FOIA requests, but especially in the courts. . . . It is all made possible through donations from people who support the ACLJ. It is amazing.

ACLJ Senior Counsel for Global Affairs Mike Pompeo explained what this decision means:

It’s a good outcome on so many levels. . . . The first one is for individuals who now have the capacity to make good decisions for themselves. People have said, "Well we're going to have to learn to live with this," and I think most Americans have learned how to live with this. Second, we saw a massive federal overreach that the United States Supreme Court rejected. That is good news, not on just the issue of COVID, but so many other issues. Finally, now employers too have the freedom to make good decisions for their own workplace.

Sec. Pompeo added how different this outcome would’ve been with a different makeup of the Court. President Trump was able to nominate and appoint three Justices to the Supreme Court. In cases like this one that was determined on a vote of 6-3, the Justices that who on the Court make all the difference.

Nothing could be more true. . . . Remember the hearings on these mandate cases, remember the counterfactual statements made by a couple of the Justices. One should remember who nominated and confirmed those Justices who made outrageous statements. . . . This would have gone very differently if Sec. Clinton had won that election in 2016; yesterday would’ve been very different.

Today’s full Sekulow broadcast is complete with even more analysis of our victory at the Supreme Court.

Watch the full broadcast below.